Hey guys! I’m so excited to *finally* share my 2023 reading journal set-up with you all. In the past, my reading journal spreads have either been tossed into my main bullet journal or confined to a smaller B6 notebook with not a lot of room for creativity. So this was my first time setting up a bullet journal dedicated specifically to reading tracking and more creative book review spreads.
The Reading Journal Plan
I have been working on setting up this journal in some capacity since September 2022, so it’s certainly been a long time coming. That might seem early to start a bullet journal set-up, but as many of you know, I was due with my first baby in December and I wanted to get a head start on 2023 journal set-ups.
Unfortunately, my son Oliver was stillborn at the end of November (most of you know this already as well – if not, you can read our story here), and the fog of grief certainly curtailed my creative efforts at times. However, past Emily had planned out basically all of the spreads and even had sticky notes in my journal for which pages they went on – thank you, past me!
This made it exponentially easier to just dive right into a spread whenever I had the energy and needed a good distraction. I didn’t have to focus too intensely on the overall design because the gist of it was already laid out. I popped on some Grey’s Anatomy, grabbed myself a hot drink and a cozy blanket, and got to work. It has been extremely therapeutic for me at a time when I have so desperately needed it.
2023 Reading Journal Set-up
The Journal
I’m using an A5 dot grid journal with white pages from Archer and Olive for my reading journal this year. Woah, big shock there, right? If you’ve followed me for a while then you know I’m pretty obsessed with these journals. I’m actually an Ambassador for them this year as well. You can use code plannedandplanted10 to save 10% of your order with them!
This journal is from their fall 2022 collection, and I’m pretty sure it’s sold out. Probably because everyone and their mother on bookstagram is using the design for their book journal, and for good reason. I mean look at it – it’s just gorgeous.
Grid Spacing Bookmark
I watched this tutorial from Tracy on YouTube to make this. I saw her use it on Instagram and I was instantly OBSESSED with the idea. In the past, I’ve always dedicated a page in the front of my journals for a grid spacing guide. While this is nice, I’m always having to flip back and forth between it and the page I’m working on. With the bookmark, you can conveniently move it around to whatever page you’re working on to help you space out your layout. It’s truly a gamechanger, y’all.
Reading Journal Cover Page
This is pretty similar to my cover page from 2022, but upgraded a little bit. I changed the quote and added some color based on the 6 Tombow dual-brush pens I’m using for my color palette in this journal.
The color codes for these particular markers, from left to right, are (IDK because it rubbed off, 192, N60, 991, 912, 992).
I also stamped in the title with my trusty alphabet stamp set.
2022 Reading Stats and Recap
Although these are statistics and overview from my 2022 reading, I wanted to include them in this journal. First, because I simply ran out of room in my 2022 journal. Second, I like to keep in mind areas where I can further diversify my reading, whether that be genre, author gender or sexuality, author race or country of origin, length, etc. Having this spread at the front of my journal keeps me aware of where I can do better with that.
I definitely made an improvement from my 2021 statistics though! We have to remember that all progress is good progress.
New Book Release Spread
This is a little dutch door spread I made to track all of the new book releases for 2023. I haven’t put any in yet, but I have a category saved on both Instagram and Goodreads for 2023 releases I’m super excited for. This will also help me keep an eye out for ARCs I’d like to request from publishers.
2023 Books Read
This spread was directly inspired by Ararya @papayareads on Instagram. As you can see, I print off little book covers on sticker paper with my printer and paste them into these squares as I finish them throughout the year. I also have these 5-star stickers from Alicia Marks It on Etsy where I can fill in my star rating for the book.
I just think this little dutch door spread here is so cute, and I can’t wait to see it filled in. I did have 64 squares for this to make things even, and the most I’ve read in a year is 57, so there may be some blank spaces left. But that’s okay too.
Reading Challenge Spread
This is a re-iteration of a spread I made last year as well. Last year there were fewer squares and I called it Reading Bingo, but I thought “challenge” fit better since I’m trying to fill them all in instead of five across.
This is really just to encourage me to read more diversely throughout the year. This is where my stats page comes in handy – I can see where the gaps in my reading were for last year and put prompts on this to fill those in for 2023. Last year I think I completed 21/25 prompts, so I was pretty happy with that.
As you can see, the last row is empty because I’m still brainstorming some prompts. If you have any suggestions, let me know in the comments!
Reading Goal Tracker
I have seen a version of this spread from a lot of people. It’s pretty simple: boxes for the number of books you want to read that year, then you fill them in as you go. However, Danica from @danicainpages is the first I saw who color-coded this by month! As I fill them in, it will be easy to see at a glance how many books I’m reading each month.
I have had the goal of 52 books, or 1 book a week, since 2021. It seemed so lofty when I started in 2021, especially considering my previous yearly totals had been around 10-15 per year. But that goal helped me prioritize reading in my life again, and I’m so grateful! I read 57 books in 2022, even with several pregnancy and grief-related reading slumps, so I feel certain that I can hit at least 52 again this year. I left space for a few more just in case.
Books by Genre Bookshelf Spread
This was in my 2022 journal as well, and y’all always go crazy for this spread when I share it on Instagram! Bookshelf spreads are pretty common in reading journals, but I like to color-code mine and use it to track genres I read as well.
I made a few mistakes in the spread last year. First, I didn’t label the markers I used in the key, so it took way longer than it should have to figure out which markers were for which genres. Second, I listed a bunch of genres I don’t really read often, and didn’t list some that I ended up reading a lot of. So I tried to remedy both of those for this year.
Format and Publication Year Tracker
I had to think for a while to come up with the logistics for this spread and I’m happy with the results! I didn’t really track publication year anywhere last year and wanted to incorporate it somehow this year.
The color-coded key on the side lists different years. This year and the last 3 years have their own colors, as I think those will be the most used here, then it goes by 5 year clusters, and 10 years once we get to the 90s.
Then I have 3 columns for different formats of books: kindle, audiobook, and print. Each time I finish a book, I’ll add a block to the column based on the format, and the color will tell me what year it was published. I think this is such a cool and simple way to see at a glance which formats I’m gravitating towards and how many backlist vs. new releases I read!
Book Hall of Fame
I’ve seen a lot of people making book bracket spreads to help them decide a favorite for the year, but I personally don’t like that method. I like this idea much more.
Yearly Reading Stats at a Glance
This spread was definitely inspired by Rachel from All the Rad Reads. Having all of my statistics from the months and year in one place will make my reading recap spread much easier to make. It will also keep me up-to-date on things as we go through the year.
Here’s what I’m tracking monthly in this spread:
- Number of books read
- Number of pages read
- Hours listened
- Already owned/vs new purchase or gift
- Library Books read
- Books read written by BIPOC authors
- Books read written by Queer authors
- Format – e-book, audio, or physical
- Fiction vs. Non-Fiction
- Number of books re-read
Library Savings
This is where I list out all the books I read that are from the library. Then I also list the retail cost if I had purchased them instead, and total up how much I save monthly and at the end of the year. I saved almost $550 last year!
And that’s just from books I read and finished from the library – that doesn’t even account for the books I checked out and didn’t read or only partially read. Support your local libraries, y’all!
Book Log
A generic chart to track books I read, the author, dates read, and star rating. Although I have the 2023 Books Read spread for photos of books I finished, this log also includes books I start and don’t finish for whatever reason. Last year I wasn’t super great about incorporating the books I DNFed into the log, but I’m making more of an effort to do so this year.
It’s also great for quick referencing when I’m making a monthly review or just want to quickly see the books I’ve read so far this year all in one spot.
Did Not Finish Log
In addition to tracking the books I DNF in the book log spread above, I also have a separate chart to list these books. I’m a mood reader to the core, so if I’m not really vibing with a book for whatever reason, it’s hard to finish it. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad book or that I won’t come back to it into the future, however.
So this is where I list those books, and I also track whereabouts I stopped, why, and if I would read it in the future. That way I know which books I stopped for mood reasons, logistical reasons (library rental end), or because it just wasn’t good.
Read What You Own Spread
This is a list of all the books I own and still need to read. Or, it will be eventually – this list is not finished yet by a longshot! In fact, I’m going to have to add in another sheet for the print books because I quickly realized one single page was not enough for that list, even though I really only have one bookshelf (and one row on a rolling cart) for books.
I primarily wanted this list to encourage me to read things I already own, but also to remember what I own digitally. Since those titles aren’t physically in my space, I often forget which ones are already on my Kindle or downloaded on Libro.fm. I’m hoping to read at least 10 of these by the end of the year, if not more.
Genre-Specific TBR Spread
Quite possibly my favorite spread in this journal! It was also directly inspired by @papayareads. I made these little square envelopes with a page from an Archer and Olive notepad, then labeled them for 4 genres I like to read and know I will read more of this year. My 4 genres here are Memoirs Narrated by Author; Loss, grief, and stillbirth; Historical Fiction; and Dystopian & Post-Apocalyptic.
Then I used a piece of cut up scrapbook paper to list out some books on my TBR that fit those genres, and folded the lists and put them in the envelopes. Then I used stickers from ArtStudioLea to hold them closed.. very loosely.
This spread is certainly more visual and aesthetic more so than functional – I could have easily just made 4 lists right on the page. But sometimes you just want to be a little extra and that’s perfectly okay.
Reading Journal Flip-Through Video
If you want some more details on these spreads and see me talk about them in real time, check out my first official YouTube video as well! And make sure to subscribe to my channel there to stay up-to-date on future journaling and book-related videos.
As always, thanks for tuning in. Which spreads are your favorite? Have any recommendations for future posts or videos? Let me know in the comments! And be sure to tag me in recreations on Instagram.
Happy planning!
